Wireless technology in the One is arguably inferior to that of the Eee PC 901. There's no Bluetooth, for a start, and the wireless is of the 802.11b/g variety, which maxes out at 54Mbps. The 901, in contrast, comes with Bluetooth and 802.11b/g/n and the latter allows connections with a maximum theoretical speed of 300Mbps.
Where the One gets one over the Eee PC 901, however, is with its optional 3G/HSDPA adaptor. Behind the battery pack, there's a SIM card slot into which you can plug your 3G SIM for go-anywhere Internet access.
Many of us will be familiar with Linux-based operating systems, but relatively few of you will have seen the particular 'Linpus' implementation in the One. The home screen is divided into four sections: 'Connect' for all Internet, instant messenger and email-related tasks; 'Work' for accessing OpenOffice word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and database applications; 'Fun' for the games, media player and photo management software; and 'Files' for accessing your data. There's also a search bar at the top right that can be used to search the Internet directly or the files on the hard drives.
Acer offers a basic one-year warranty, which can be extended to two years for an additional £49.99.
Performance
The Acer Aspire One feels quick in everyday use. It takes approximately
17 seconds to boot the operating system -- 3 seconds quicker than an
Eee PC 901 -- and about 10 seconds to launch common apps like
OpenOffice or Firefox.
The Linpus interface is also a joy to use; it's quicker and more
responsive than the Linux distributions on most of the One's rivals.
Battery life wasn't particularly impressive, though. As mentioned, the One ships with a 2200mAh battery as standard, which lasted just shy of 2 hours when playing a DivX movie. That's a far cry from the Eee PC 901's 4.5-hour figure. Those wishing for better battery life can purchase a 4800mAh battery for £79.99.
Conclusion
In some respects, the Acer Aspire One is better
than an Eee PC 901. It has an excellent keyboard, solid performance and
is highly portable. The Eee PC 901 still has the edge in terms of
battery life and mouse input, so it's a close call between the two
machines.
Edited by Shannon Doubleday
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User reviews11
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John Pryck 31 August 2011
Good: Good build quality, brilliant screen
Bad: Constantly freezes, dies after 9 months use.
Comment: I bought this model in the UK (TechnoWorld) in November 2010. I liked everything about it except for its infuriating tendency to Giovani freeze", whether working offline or online. In August 2011 it seized up completely, with the message "A disc read error occurred." The machine also became very hot to the touch. None of the suggested fixes worked.
It looks like my chances of getting it fixed under guarantee in the Philipines, where I am currently staying, are zero. I am not impressed, and having tried to get help from Technoworld and from Acer, I would not recommend either company. I have bought a Lenovo Idea Pad as a replacement netbook.
Angie Lee 25 July 2011
Good: it boots up fast
Bad: memory life and rubish screensaver for a kid
Comment: when you want to get rid of it you can't
because theres not any places that would buy it for the price you paid
its a bit of a rip off but its good for a kid from the age of 6-11 cus it has all what they need to have a perfect laptop you cant really install or download much ass it wont let you
my advice if you get this laptop for a carry around dont get linux it dosent sell easy or for much get windows xp as you can doo more on it and its more better but for a kid linux is okay and if not get acer aspire one happy any difefrent colours more better and grown up
Samuel David Lickiss 2 May 2011
Good: Price, battery life, size, weight, keyboard, overall design.
Bad: Crashes all the time, slow to do anything, poor build quality, speakers, overheats easily.
Comment: The machine looks good, I purchased mine with the battery upgrade giving it around six hours with light use.
I purchased it to replace an aging laptop which I'd used for years and still works now but it doesn't have wireless internet, which I really need now. I travel a lot so wanted this to take abroad/on trains etc.
The problems came almost immediately. It crashes ALL the time even with just light internet use or word processing. Sometimes it crashes if you just leave it doing nothing for five minutes while making a coffee.
Booting up and doing anything like opening OpenOffice, the internet or iTunes takes ages.
The rubber pads on the bottom started falling out after about a month. For a while this meant that the computer wasn't even balanced so wobbled as I typed; the final one has fallen out too now.
Speakers are rubbish and distorts anything over around halfway on the main volume control.
I will say that if it wasn't for the crashing and speed I would be very happy with it. The crashing is infuriating and I actually now spend time wondering whether to do stuff like download a file because it will crash while doing it. It took five attempts to defrag the disk because it crashed while doing it.
Not a good purchase but now stuck with it. Also, if you buy it off "Simply Acer" and it goes wrong don't expect them to help you because they are useless as well.
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